Posts Tagged ‘board of standards and appeals’

The Board of Standards and Appeals ordered that developer Ben Shaoul remove a controversial seventh-floor penthouse at 515 East 5th Street in the East Village.

Shaoul received 60 days to finish demolition of the penthouse. The board will then decide whether to approve the zoning variances needed for the sixth floor to remain. After completing the addition in 2007, Shaoul ran into trouble with the Board of Standards and Appeals, which reversed the 2006 Department of Buildings ruling allowing the additional two floors, as previously reported. [more]

The city’s Board of Standards and Appeals is down a chairwoman, one member is out on a long vacation, another is quitting July 31 and the executive director is also soon to depart. Down so many, some real estate watchers told Crain’s that they are concerned about the agency being able to function at full throttle.

So far, a public hearing scheduled for Aug. 12 has been canceled and rescheduled for Aug. 19, as the board must secure a minimum of three members before it can issue decisions, Crain’s reported. The busy agency typically handles more than 350 zoning variance, special permit and appeals applications for zoning variances and building-code determinations every year. [more]

UPDATED 3 p.m., June 18: The city’s Board of Standards and Appeals is expected to vote today on the Methodist Hospital’s zoning variance for a proposed 500,000-square-foot expansion of the medical facility’s current location. [more]

Anthony Borelli, vice president of planning and development at Edison Properties, may be on track to secure an appointment to the Board of Standards and Appeals.

The de Blasio administration is zeroing in on Borelli to lead the board of the land-use body, which grants exemptions from zoning code for individual properties and years appeals of denials from the Department of Buildings and other city agencies. Borelli formerly served as planning and land use director for the borough of Manhattan under Scott Stringer, now city comptroller. He was district manager of Manhattan’s Community Board 4. [more]

New rendering for New York Methodist Hospital at 506 6th Street in Park Slope

In response to local opposition, the New York Methodist Hospital is set to propose a revised design for its expanded outpatient center tonight to Community Board 6.

The new renderings show slightly shrunken parts of the three-story upper façade of the eight-story building, located at 506 6th Street in Park Slope. Residents have argued that the project does not fit with the character neighborhood and will increase traffic. The hospital has made around 20 changes to the original plan, based on community input over the past six months, hospital spokesperson Lyn Hill has said. [more]

Small yoga studios — those hotbeds of stress and angst — can breathe a little easier now, thanks to a city Department of Buildings change that allows some of them to skip getting a special permit before opening new locations. [more]

The lender to the original developer of a long-gestating hotel project on the Lower East Side is seeking a time extension to finish up, the Lo-Down reported.

While many slow-moving hotel projects in the neighborhood have recently picked up pace, this incomplete 16-story development — known as the Allen Street Hotel and originally developed by DAB Group — remains stuck. [more]

A new condominium development cold be coming to the suburban-style enclave of College Point, Queens. The Times Ledger reported that plans to turn the old Chilton Paint factory at 109-09 15th Avenue into residences have resurfaced, following a request to extend a city variance for the construction of housing in a manufacturing area. [more]

Despite having won court support, a controversial mosque being built in Sheepshead Bay has found a fresh opponent in State Senator David Storobin, who is currently running for reelection in the new Midwood district – populated mostly by ultra-conservative Orthodox Jews, Brooklyn Daily reported. Residents had already attacked the mosque with a myriad of charges, including zoning violations that were unanimously dismissed by the Board of Standards and Appeals last year. The fact that it is extremely unlikely that Storobin could have any effect on the board’s decision has led many to speculate that the incumbent is merely vying for votes in a right-wing district. [more]

The Mormon church, which counts presidential contender Mitt Romney as a member, has been making plenty of headlines of late. Now the Salt Lake City-based church has plans to build a church in Flushing, Queens.

With a unanimous vote, the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals yesterday approved the construction of a Mormon church more than one and a half times the size of what’s permitted under current zoning regulations, the New York Daily News reported. The new structure will sit atop 145-13 33rd Avenue, a plot that the Mormon Church, formally known as the Church of Latter-day Saints, owns. [more]

While Mayor Michael Bloomberg proudly announced plans to develop “micro” apartments in Manhattan this week, residents in Staten Island were bemoaning the city’s decision to allow for a house on a micro lot in Port Richmond.

According to the Staten Island Advance, despite a unanimous vote against the proposal by the community board, the Board of Standards and Appeals granted Cee Jay Real Estate Development Corp. a zoning variance to build on a lot that measures just 17 feet wide in front and 11 feet wide at its rear. [more]

From left: Howard Goldman, a land use attorney who represented Bay People, Lamis Deek, an attorney for the developers and the Sheepshead Bay site

A group of Sheepshead Bay residents who claim that a planned mosque is using a zoning loophole to skirt parking requirements lost their latest attempt to halt the controversial project, after the Board of Standards and Appeals unanimously rejected their claims today.

Though it hasn’t attracted as much attention as Park 51, the Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan, the mosque planned for 2812 Voorhies Avenue, on a residential block between East 28th and East 29th streets, has inspired protests, a lawsuit and challenges before the Department of Buildings. … [more]

The owners of a popular Bayside, Queens Lucille Roberts fitness center, who have been operating for nearly two decades in their Bell Boulevard location despite a zoning regulation that forbids them from doing so, are heading to a meeting of Community Board 11 tonight to lobby for a rezoning proposal that would permit the gym to exist as-of-right. According to the Daily News, the area was down-zoned in the mid-1990s to C1-2, a designation that allows small retail and service businesses on the commercial stretch and doesn’t allow special permitting for a fitness center to dodge the rules. The Lucille Roberts owners are seeking a C2-2 designation for the entire stretch, but although the gym is popular with local residents, Community Board 11 Chairman Jerry Iannece noted that “the idea of upzoning the area makes some people uneasy.” … [more]

Following community outcry, the Board of Standards and Appeals ruled today to put the fate of a sliver building at 330 West 86th Street in the hands of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, according to Westside Independent, thus creating another roadblock for the project. HPD has opposed the demolition of the existing five-story rental building. The decision comes three months after BSA ruled that Midtown-based Darkhorse Development could build a 17-story building on the 20-foot wide plot between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue. That ruling said the city’s Department of Buildings could not restrict the height of the proposed building to just a few stories. Darkhorse conceived of the project a decade ago and its plans have been stymied due to years of litigation by city agencies. [Westside Independent]

Dutch Kills homeowners are heading to court to stop construction of anine-story hotel on a residential block at 39-35 27th Street. The LongIsland City residents are suing developer Steven Bahar and the cityagencies that granted him permission to build the hotel, even after hemissed a zoning deadline. “We’re not against development,” Dutch KillsAdvocacy League President Barbara Lorinz told the Daily News. “We justdon’t want or need these big high-rises next to one-, two-, andthree-family homes.” Lorinz is one of the plaintiffs in the June 25lawsuit filed against the developer, the Board of Standards and Appealsand other city agencies. The suit claims the BSA should not have givenBahar permission to build the hotel because he failed to finish pouringits foundation before the zoning height restriction was changed inOctober 2008. Meanwhile, the Dutch Kills Advocacy League met with anurban planner yesterday to discuss ways to preserve the community,which has seen an influx of hotels popping up in recent years. [NYDN]

From left: Robert Ricciardelli, the current building at 330 West 86th Street and a rendering for the site

A sliver condominium project dreamed up a decade ago for the Upper West Side but stymied through years of litigation by city agencies cleared what could be its final hurdle last month when a review ruled in favor of the developer.

The city’s Board of Standards and Appeals decided in favor of Midtown-based Darkhorse Development April 20, removing a barrier to a 17-story building on a 20-foot wide plot at 330 West 86th Street, between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue.

The ruling says the city’s Department of Buildings cannot restrict the height of the proposed four-unit building to just a few stories. … [more]

New Williamsburg condominium 80 Metropolitan has been approved for Federal Housing Administration financing, according to a press release sent on behalf of the developer, Steiner NYC, which will allow buyers to make down payments as small as 3.5 percent. Meanwhile, the New York City Board of Standards and Appeals approved zoning exemptions that will allow New York University to build its proposed spiritual center at the intersection of Washington Square South, West 3rd Street and Thompson Street. And Metropolitan Realty Associates and its equity partner Angelo Gordon & Co. have received $23.5 million in financing for its 188,500-square-foot mixed-use Garden City development, according to a press release sent today by Metropolitan. Click here for more. TRD … [more]

With fewer hotel rooms under construction, hotel developers hope the reduction in new rooms will help to revive the hospitality industry.

The October 2009 STR/TWR/Dodge Construction Pipeline Report noted that the total active U.S. hotel development pipeline includes 4,089 projects comprising 435,265 rooms.

This represents a 32.7 percent decrease in the number of rooms in the total active pipeline — which includes projects in the construction, final planning and planning stages, but not in the pre planning stage — compared to October 2008.

“The number of rooms in construction fell 41.2 percent from the same time last year,” said Duane Vinson, vice president at STR. A number of planned hotels have ground to a halt in Manhattan including the Lower East Side’s 180 Ludlow Street. … [more]

Stalled hotel project 180 Ludlow may soon breathe new life as a residential building, after Community Board 3 last night granted their tentative approval to the proposal laid out by lawyers for developer Serge Hoyda. The 158-unit building would be rent stabilized but would not have a major affordability component, which was a point of contention amongst board members. “There is an affordable housing crisis in this neighborhood,” said Joel Finegold, an affordable housing advocate. “People are being displaced on a massive scale. We’re all familiar with this, and this is an opportunity to create a tremendous number of affordable housing units.” Hoyda’s lawyers said financing for a residential building with an affordability component is not available in the current economic environment, and that instead, in an effort to partially satisfy that need, Hoyda will set aside five apartments in the building as a donation to the community. Other units will be mostly studios priced at $1,200 to $1,300 per month, though there will be some one- and two-bedroom apartments as well. The board will hold a final vote on the proposal next week, and while their approval is not necessary for the project to move forward, it will be instrumental in helping Hoyda obtain approval for the plan from the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals.

The developers of the Fairchild, at 415 Washington Street, did notfollow the Landmarks Preservation Commission-approved blueprint whenconstructing the building, Downtown Express reported. The building’selevator bulkhead is higher than it should be, the windows arecasements and the cornice is not designed as planned. The buildingswitched architects midway through the project, with Joseph PellLombardi designing the building and architect Karl Fischer taking overonce construction had begun. After approval from the LandmarksPreservation Commission, Lombardi changed the designs to incorporaterecommendations from the Board of Standards and Appeals, and he neverwent back to the commission for further approval, Fischer said.Lombardi said Fischer should have gotten the necessary approvals. TheFairchild is owned by a group of investors that includes actor JamesGandolfini. … [more]